Our brains play a pivotal role in the creation of culture, because they play a pivotal role in the behavior of individuals who comprise that culture. As researchers have shown in recent decades, the human brain is not, as people once hypothesized, a static entity that ceases to develop after we reach adulthood. The ways in which we choose to spend our time impact our brains in such profound ways that researchers have observed actual physical changes in the size and shape of areas of the brain that are known to be connected with those given behaviors. For example, a study in 2000 showed that the hippocampus, an area of the brain associated with spatial relations, was significantly larger in London cab drivers, and that the size correlated positively with how long the person had been a cab driver ( http://www.learninginfo.org/neuroplasticity.htm) The brains of those cab drivers were physically changing in response to their daily behaviors, reinforcing those neural pathways and making them stronger and more active, a phenomenon now known as neuroplasticity. With change in individuals' brain construction comes change in the thoughts and behaviors of individuals, and with the changing thoughts and behaviors of a vast number of individuals comes a change in culture. So what does this have to do with the internet? Perhaps some of you have had a hard time focusing on reading this wiki entry; perhaps you have succumbed to what is becoming for many of us almost obsessive compulsive behavior of checking facebook, twitter or email. Most of us have probably noticed, even voiced to a friend, our inability to stay focused when writing a paper or reading something online. In his book The Shallows, Nicholas Carr gives evidence that our brains have undergone a neuoplastic shift from the days when we used to be able to curl up for hours with a good book; the rapid, ever-changing, low-attention-span-demanding nature of the information presented to us on the internet has perhaps lowered our attention spans and changed the way in which we process information. Carr is not the only person to suggest changes in our brains that have come as a result of modern technology; a study at the University of Rochester in 2009 provided evidence that playing action video games lowers participants reaction times to rapidly changing stimuli, without sacrificing accuracy. (http://vision.psych.umn.edu/users/csgreen/Publications/dye_CDiPS09.pdf) Both of these reports suggest that our brains are changing due to our virtual-reality behaviors, and that this impacts the way in which we function in the world, but there appears to be a difference of values between the two reports: Carr seems to think that we are losing the ability to focus and immerse ourselves and that that is bad, while the researchers from the University of Rochester see our increased ability to react quickly to rapidply changing stimuli as being an advantage in the real world. That judgment call is for individuals to decide, but either way one thing seems clear: our thoughts and behaviors don't just change the internet, the internet also changes the human brain, the organ which is ultimately behind all human thought, behavior, and culture. http://www.themillions.com/2010/10/nicholas-carrs-the-shallows-what-the-internet-is-doing-to-our-brains.html
Overview
Our brains play a pivotal role in the creation of culture, because they play a pivotal role in the behavior of individuals who comprise that culture. As researchers have shown in recent decades, the human brain is not, as people once hypothesized, a static entity that ceases to develop after we reach adulthood. The ways in which we choose to spend our time impact our brains in such profound ways that researchers have observed actual physical changes in the size and shape of areas of the brain that are known to be connected with those given behaviors. For example, a study in 2000 showed that the hippocampus, an area of the brain associated with spatial relations, was significantly larger in London cab drivers, and that the size correlated positively with how long the person had been a cab driver ( http://www.learninginfo.org/neuroplasticity.htm) The brains of those cab drivers were physically changing in response to their daily behaviors, reinforcing those neural pathways and making them stronger and more active, a phenomenon now known as neuroplasticity. With change in individuals' brain construction comes change in the thoughts and behaviors of individuals, and with the changing thoughts and behaviors of a vast number of individuals comes a change in culture.So what does this have to do with the internet? Perhaps some of you have had a hard time focusing on reading this wiki entry; perhaps you have succumbed to what is becoming for many of us almost obsessive compulsive behavior of checking facebook, twitter or email. Most of us have probably noticed, even voiced to a friend, our inability to stay focused when writing a paper or reading something online. In his book The Shallows, Nicholas Carr gives evidence that our brains have undergone a neuoplastic shift from the days when we used to be able to curl up for hours with a good book; the rapid, ever-changing, low-attention-span-demanding nature of the information presented to us on the internet has perhaps lowered our attention spans and changed the way in which we process information. Carr is not the only person to suggest changes in our brains that have come as a result of modern technology; a study at the University of Rochester in 2009 provided evidence that playing action video games lowers participants reaction times to rapidly changing stimuli, without sacrificing accuracy. (http://vision.psych.umn.edu/users/csgreen/Publications/dye_CDiPS09.pdf) Both of these reports suggest that our brains are changing due to our virtual-reality behaviors, and that this impacts the way in which we function in the world, but there appears to be a difference of values between the two reports: Carr seems to think that we are losing the ability to focus and immerse ourselves and that that is bad, while the researchers from the University of Rochester see our increased ability to react quickly to rapidply changing stimuli as being an advantage in the real world. That judgment call is for individuals to decide, but either way one thing seems clear: our thoughts and behaviors don't just change the internet, the internet also changes the human brain, the organ which is ultimately behind all human thought, behavior, and culture. http://www.themillions.com/2010/10/nicholas-carrs-the-shallows-what-the-internet-is-doing-to-our-brains.html
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